PT: Bard Class and Tiered Item Changes

[Toastrz]

Web: http://test.realmofthemadgod.com/

Projector: https://test.realmofthemadgod.com/client

Hello! We are starting a new public testing session today which will last until Friday the 7th, 11:00 a.m. UTC.

This new public testing session covers:

• The upcoming Bard class, using bows, robes, and the brand new Lute ability!
• Some restructuring changes to tiered abilities and top tiers.

Bard

We are excited to present you the new version of the Bard. It will be the first class to be introduced with the Unity client. The Bard focuses on mid - long range support. Wearing a robe he has less dexterity via the armors. That is why he has a high natural max dexterity.

The Lutes follows the new tiered gear progression. All tiers duration and range is 3 (for both effect).

Tier	MP	Range Boost	Energize duration
0	70	1.1	-
1	75	1.2	-
2	80	1.3	1.5
3	85	1.3	1.5
4	90	1.4	3
5	95	1.4	3
6	100	1.5	4.5

We are already aware of a bug where the range-boosting effect of Inspired appears to influence ability projectiles as well (shields, quivers, etc.). This is only a visual glitch, however, and will be fixed.

NOTE: We strongly suggest that you delete your Bards on the testing client before PT ends, or it may break your testing account and you will need to create a new one for the next public testing session. Rest assured however that it will not have any effect on your real account either way.

Tiered Item Changes

With the present creation of Oryx 3, T7 abilities will be released (surprise!) However, as many of you likely already know well, T6 abilities are in an unusual spot due to the uneven progression of tiered abilities. Despite the significant jump in rarity and value, the vast majority of T6 abilities are statistical duplicates of their much more common T5 counterparts, except with a few very weak stat bonuses tacked on (namely +2 VIT and +2 WIS).

While we’re excited for T7 abilities, we don’t want to release them without first addressing T6, otherwise they would be rendered even more pointless functionally. We are adjusting tiered progression for most abilities to accommodate this and taking the opportunity to solve all lingering redundancies (we’ve already restructured some such as scepters and traps in the past during class balancing patches).

As a rule of thumb, T6 abilities will not be touched directly except in a few minor cases, since UTs are typically built to be balanced around these average stats. Instead, T5s and below will be tweaked to not only make room for the changes made to T5, but also create a more even progression overall where every step matters.

One change that applies across the board (and thus won’t be mentioned individually) is that the consistent +2 VIT and WIS on all T6 abilities will be converted to +20 HP and MP. This is more impactful and allows more room for expansion, with future T7s then granting +40 HP and MP for added incentive. Additionally, any ability type that does not already have a core stat bonus associated with it (DEF on helms, SPD on cloaks, etc.) will receive one, simply to give it more identity.

There’s a good deal of information to cover, so to make things easier to read and compare, the current stats of each ability type will be included to quickly cross-reference and better visualize how things are shifting.

Cloaks

Cloaks are simple and straightforward, and can be handled simply by offsetting the slopes for MP and duration. T0 will start at 55 MP and a duration of 2.5 seconds, with each tier increasing by 5 MP and 0.5 seconds of duration to align with where T6 is by the end. T6 can also slightly continue the stat progression by receiving another DEX point.

Tier	MP	Duration	DEX/SPD
0	55	2.5	0/0
1	60	3	0/0
2	65	3.5	0/3
3	70	4	0/5
4	75	4.5	3/5
5	80	5	4/5
6	85	5.5	5/5

Quivers

Quivers can take the same approach as cloaks by reducing the starting point of T0 by 5 MP and 40 average damage to align by T6. The T6 quiver can also receive another DEX point.

Tier	MP	Damage	DEX
0	45	60-100 (80)	0
1	50	100-140 (120)	1
2	55	140-180 (160)	2
3	60	180-220 (200)	3
4	65	200-280 (240)	4
5	70	250-310 (280)	5
6	75	290-350 (320)	6

Spells

Spell progression is a bit shakier. The total average damage increases by approximately 400 with each step, give or take 50 damage. T0 also has a tighter damage range than most. T6 actually is slightly different, but only by having a wider damage range. The average remains identical to T5. MP will take the same approach as before, starting at 20 and working back up. The damage takes a bit more math, going in units of an average total of 350. Since this is the first ability without a core stat bonus associated with it, WIS will be included too in a very straightforward manner for a little extra spammability.

Tier	Shot Damage	Total Damage	WIS
0	15-20 (17.5)	300-400 (350)	0
1	30-40 (35)	600-800 (700)	1
2	40-65 (52.5)	800-1300 (1050)	2
3	50-90 (70)	1000-1800 (1400)	3
4	60-115 (87.5)	1200-2300 (1750)	4
5	70-140 (105)	1400-2800 (2100)	5
6	80-165 (122.5)	1600-3300 (2450)	6

Tomes

The T6 tome is adequately distinct from T5 for the most part after the wismod rework. The only glaring copy is the base heal amount being the same, a consequence of T2 taking a massive leap compared to any other. T2 marks a change in a number of ways with the introduction of Healing and a slower climb in range and MP from that point. This could potentially be evened out in the future, but this wouldn’t be a necessary ability to touch in preparation for T7s, as this scaling already allows room for further tiers without redundancy. The only consistency change needed is a stat bonus. This time it would be VIT, increasing linearly along with the tier number.

Tier	VIT
0	0
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5
6	6

Helms

Helms are easy to sort out. Bumping T0’s MP back to 55 like cloaks, adjusting T1’s effect duration to progress at a 0.5 interval like the others and increasing from there, and realigning the DEF bonuses as seen below lets the scaling meet at T6.

Tier	MP	Duration	DEF
0	55	3	2
1	60	3.5	3
2	65	4	4
3	70	4.5	5
4	75	5	6
5	80	5.5	8
6	85	6	10

Shields

The T6 shield is slightly different from T5 already, but not by a noticeable enough amount that a T7 shield could follow the same progression and feel big. A few realignment changes have been made, mainly at T5.

Tier	MP	Shots	Damage	DEF
0	85	1	55-90 (72.5)	2
1	85	2	100-140 (240)	3
2	90	3	150-190 (510)	4
3	90	3	190-240 (645)	6
4	95	4	230-280 (1020)	8
5	95	4	270-330 (1200)	10
6	100	5	300-360 (1650)	12

Seals

The HP boost is the only feature which sees significant change between each tier, so seals are acceptable as they are now for expanding tier progression. The stat bonus added is DEX.

Tier	DEX
0	0
1	0
2	2
3	2
4	3
5	3
6	4

Poisons

With the exception of radius, the scaling of most poison attributes is jumpy, and T5 and T6 are still mostly identical aside from a very minor shift between DoT and impact damage. These adjustments are especially delicate since assassins also have to consider MP efficiency translating to damage. A WIS bonus has been included.

Tier	MP	Radius	DoT	Impact	Duration	WIS
0	25	2	100	20	3	0
1	40	2.5	200	50	3.2	1
2	55	3	300	80	3.5	1
3	70	3.5	400	110	3.7	2
4	80	4	500	140	4	2
5	90	4.5	600	170	4.3	3
6	100	5	700	200	4.5	3

Skulls

Skulls have a balanced progression as they are now. The only change made is lowering T5’s heal to 105 and MP cost to 110 for distinction.

Traps

Traps are also close to being fine thanks to past reworking. By lowering T5’s MP to 100 and damage to 300, the only other redundancy is the radius, which is treated like past abilities by reducing the starting point by 0.5.

Tier	MP	Damage	Radius	ATT
0	40	60	3.5	0
1	50	95	4	0
2	60	140	4.5	0
3	75	200	5	0
4	90	260	5.5	1
5	100	300	6	2
6	105	350	6.5	3

Orbs

The progression of orbs is perfectly future-proof as is. The only obvious change is to increase T5’s MP to 85 and T0’s to 60 for consistency. Starting at T3, orbs will also receive a VIT bonus.

Tier	MP	VIT
0	60	0
1	65	0
2	70	0
3	75	1
4	80	2
5	85	3
6	90	4

Prisms

Should be easily treated by changing the duration progression to go from 3 to 9 seconds by increments of 1 (T6 can afford to have a slight buff in this regard) and changing T6’s MP to 90. A WIS bonus will also be applied linearly from T1.

Tier	MP	Duration	WIS
0	60	3	0
1	65	4	1
2	70	5	2
3	75	6	3
4	80	7	4
5	85	8	5
6	90	9	6

Scepters

Scepters are very close to being fine, but need an MP offset starting at 30. SPD will also be added starting at T4.

Tier	MP	SPD
0	30	0
1	40	0
2	50	0
3	60	0
4	70	1
5	80	2
6	90	3

Stars

Although not strictly necessary to make way for T7, the MP costs for T5 and T6 will go to 80 and 90 respectively, slightly lessening the blow when trying to just use a star for speedy movement and reducing the need to carry a T0 purely for that. The projectile range for T0 and T4 will also be standardized to reduce confusion (sorry Wind Circle). For its stat bonus, stars will receive a very generous amount of VIT to aid the ninja’s survivability. From T0: 0 -> 3 -> 3 -> 6 -> 6 -> 9 -> 9.

Tier	MP	Range	VIT
0	30	15	0
1	40	15	3
2	50	15	3
3	60	15	6
4	70	15	6
5	80	15	9
6	90	15	9

Wakizashis

The T5 waki lacks maximum Exposed duration, but still treads quite close to T6 in its current form. This has been tweaked by knocking its MP to 75 and lowering the damage to 300-450 (1500). Wakis will also receive DEX from 0 to 6 linearly, which the samurai otherwise sorely lacks.

Tier	MP	Shots	Damage	DEX
0	40	2	150-250 (400)	0
1	50	2	250-350 (600)	1
2	60	3	200-300 (750)	2
3	65	3	300-400 (1050)	3
4	70	4	250-350 (1200)	4
5	75	4	300-450 (1500)	5
6	80	4	400-500 (1800)	6

T13 Weapons and T14 Armor Revisions

With the introduction of Oryx 3 dropping T14 weapons and T15 armors, T13 weapons and T14 armors will no longer be the top tiered items in the game. To make those worthwhile and help the progression feel more justified as a whole, we need them to be a bigger jump than usual, making T13/T14 shine despite no longer being the absolute peak of the tiered system. That requires a buff to both stats and drop rates.

T14 Armors

To make the comparison easier, we will be listing the stats of the T13, T14 and T15 armors. As things stand, they have a simple linear progression that has close to no impact in game.

T13 Robe: +55 MP, +4 ATT, +13 DEF, +6 WIS
T14 Robe: +60 MP, +4 ATT, +14 DEF, +7 WIS
T15 Robe: +65 MP, +4 ATT, +15 DEF, +7 WIS

T13 Leather: +17 DEF, +5 DEX
T14 Leather: +18 DEF, +5 DEX
T15 Leather: +19 DEF, +5 DEX

T13 Heavy: +24 DEF
T14 Heavy: +25 DEF
T15 Heavy: +26 DEF

Here are the new planned stats of T13/T14/T15 armors. They have a bigger jump between tiers, the equivalent of two tiers with the previous system, making T14 more interesting and T15 an item absolutely worth using. Although they may not have any particular quirk like UTs, they’re still naturally desirable by virtue of UTs being mostly balanced around WC top quality.

T13 Robe: +55 MP, +4 ATT, +13 DEF, +6 WIS
T14 Robe: +65 MP, +5 ATT, +15 DEF, +7 WIS
T15 Robe: +75 MP, +6 ATT, +17 DEF, +8 WIS

T13 Leather: +17 DEF, +5 DEX
T14 Leather: +19 DEF, +6 DEX
T15 Leather: +21 DEF, +7 DEX

T13 Heavy: +24 DEF
T14 Heavy: +26 DEF
T15 Heavy: +28 DEF

T13 Weapons

Like before, here are the current standings of the three top weapon tiers.

T12 Staff: 60-100 (80)
T13 Staff: 60-105 (82.5)
T14 Staff: 65-105 (85)

T12 Wand: 95-140 (117.5)
T13 Wand: 100-140 (120)
T14 Wand: 100-145 (122.5)

T12 Bow: 50-75 (62.5)
T13 Bow: 55-75 (65)
T14 Bow: 55-80 (67.5)

T12 Dagger: 95-175 (135)
T13 Dagger: 95-180 (137.5)
T14 Dagger: 100-180 (140)

T12 Sword: 220-275 (247.5)
T13 Sword: 225-280 (252.5)
T14 Sword: 230-285 (257.5)

T12 Katana: 135-180 (157.5)
T13 Katana: 145-185 (165)
T14 Katana: 150-190 (170)

Here are the new planned stats of T12/T13/T14 weapons. The jump is based on the difference between current T12 and T13 multiplied by 3 for T13, and multiplied by 6 for T14.

T12 Staff: 60-100 (80)
T13 Staff: 65-110 (87.5)
T14 Staff: 75-115 (95)

T12 Wand: 95-140 (117.5)
T13 Wand: 105-145 (125)
T14 Wand: 110-155 (132.5)

T12 Bow: 50-75 (62.5)
T13 Bow: 60-80 (70)
T14 Bow: 70-85 (77.5)

T12 Dagger: 95-175 (135)
T13 Dagger: 100-185 (142.5)
T14 Dagger: 110-190 (150)

T12 Sword: 220-275 (247.5)
T13 Sword: 235-290 (262.5)
T14 Sword: 250-305 (277.5)

T12 Katana: 135-180 (157.5)
T13 Katana: 160-200 (180)
T14 Katana: 180-225 (202.5)

Slightly unrelated, but T6 Rings which aren’t Magic/Health will get their stats bumped to +10 to match the HP/MP rings.

Various Drop Rate/Location Changes

Without giving exact numbers, current T13/14 drop location rates (MBC, Void, Fungal, Crystal, and Nest) will receive a substantial buff, roughly doubled and in some cases tripled. We’ll also likely streamline the drop table setup internally to make the rates more balanced and feel closer to how the WC handles it.

Speaking of which, WC tops will be removed from all sources except for Oryx 2 and the Shatters to slightly reinstate some of their value and not make them so overly reliable to come by (looking at you, Murderous Megamoth).

Lastly, stat potion drop rates will be nerfed across endgame dungeons, though we don’t have precise details to share on that plan at this time. The whole tier system will likely see further review someday, but consider this O3 prep to be a small yet important step toward better balancing rarity with value and helping revitalize some of the trading economy.

Other Info

• Remember, this week there will be events in the Crawling Depths and Parasite Chambers! You can get more details on those here.

• A revised version of Belladonna’s Garden will be released on February 12th, along with some fresh Valentine’s Day activities! Belladonna is ready, are you?

• We will be hosting a Q&A session on the official Discord this Friday, 5 p.m. UTC. Join us here!

[Mrunibro]

NOTE: We strongly suggest that you delete your Bards on the testing client before PT ends, or it may break your testing account and you will need to create a new one for the next public testing session. Rest assured however that it will not have any effect on your real account either way.

!!

[Mynamerr]

[Male]

Nice!
I’m excited to try out these changes!

First of all, I’d like to point out that Rogue, Archer, Mystic, Trickster, Sorcerer, Ninja and Samurai all start out with T0 gear, whereas the other classes start out maxed with WC tops and a Deca ring/Tomb ring.

Bard starts with just the tiered lutes, and no other gear to speak of. It might be good to include some gear and/or maxed stats in order to try out the less mundane.
Edit: Just found the maxing apples in the store, having a bit of gear to try the Bard with would be nice though. For now I guess I’ll salvage some from my vault by making the other classes.

The Bard class will be most interesting to test with weapons that have non-conventional shot patterns (things like Bulwark, Nectar Crossfire, Corruption Cutter, Sentient Staff, Staff of Esben, Sword of the Colossus, Kazekiri, Void Blade, Reikoku. How will these weapons react to the range increases?
It might be good to make (some) of these weapons more readily available during this public testing session, or test the effects of a range increase with those weapons.

I was expecting the range boost to be in tiles this time around, not a multiplier, that’s crazy!

As for balancing of the tiered abiltiies (specifically Bard), I’ll get to that in a later reply.

[DemiPony]

These are wildly awesome balance changes and I’m super excited to see how it affects the meta and character progression in-game! Lost Halls Tops, T14 Armour/T13 Weaps, have been out for over 2.5 years, yet I feel like they’ve failed spectacularly as end-game goals for accounts. I’ve personally ran hundreds of halls (A huge amount of 1.0 and a decent amount of 2.0 halls, for stalkers who check) over those years and have very little T13 weaps to my name. Not once have I ever felt like it was possible or even worth attempting to outfit my whole account with them. And as for T14 armours, their stats have never felt worth wearing over certain STs or UTs that just outclass them vastly. It’s nice to see them not only receiving stats buffs but also droprate buffs. If These new O3 tiers are fun enough to grind out then I guarantee many players will enjoy outfitting their whole account with them over time as a new endgame goal to achieve beyond maxing a character.

The T6 ability changes are nice as well. Having a main stat for each ability is a huge change that not only removes the need for stat stick UTs (eastern wakazashi, kageboshi, murky poison, holy protection, etc) but it also brings worth back to the drops that were once simply flex items. I must say a bit about the tomes though:

Tomes are not handled well enough as is presented by this post. Healing buff duration and speedy are not meaningful upgrades that players notice or appreciate. Literally every endgame priest would agree that tiered tomes are a joke. T6 is solely a swapout for the speedy and t5 is used the majority of the time for cheaper burst healing. Priest’s identity that separates it from Paladin is cheap, on demand burst healing. The numbers should be tweaked to reflect this. The healing regen buff and speedy were put in by Kabam as a bandaid fix, they were not intended to be an end-all solution for the class. Please consider adding a midgame UT that offers speedy and removing speedy from T6, then changing the distribution of power to make T4/5/6 have meaningful upgrades. If the proposed changes posted in this thread went through literally no priest would change their ways and T5 tome would remain the king of healing.

Oh, and while you’re changing tiered items… Please consider adding slight amounts of hp/mp to tiered rings. Tiered rings are almost a joke at this point with the vast array of straight upgrade UTs/STs available. Changing UB rings to have a stat of 10 is a start, but it’s not enough when there’s still ST rings that offer +10s along with a bunch of other stats/set bonuses. Adding a scaling HP/MP bonus to rings similar to your proposed ability changes would help the rings stand out immensely and would give a myriad of build options to classes without having to rely on rare drops. Even if it’s just +5 hp/mp per tier starting at T3, which would mean Unbound rings would give +20 hp/mp. You could nerf HP/MP rings themselves understandably or not include them in this change, or even just give them vit/wis.

Very cool set of changes! I’m sorry I didn’t touch on Bard. I’m just extremely interested in tiered item reworks. It’s been a topic on my mind for quite awhile, as I feel progression and the meta in RotMG is sorely stunted. There’s too much HP stacking in the game as armour pierce/break devalues def and burst dmg survivability trumps reduced dmg over time. I hope that not only will tiered items see a rework but the stats themselves see some change to revitalize the game and bring value back to many items seen as garbage by many. Viitttmodddd?

[RWD]

Sounds very good

[ChaosgameX]

Welp not going to hit white star now

[Czaxi]

I love that there’s a class that gives energized, that’s great, but a range increase? There are some weapons that can get FUCKED because of that. Colo sword? Forget it. Esben staff? Impossible. Celestial blade? Really gets no extra range. Leaf bow? Shots deviate so much extra range doesn’t help. Void bow? Same thing. The bard’s ability could be so much better if it was just energized, especially when pets get nerfed and/or energized is buffed. Also, the robe on him makes him harder to use than the other bows. He has a lower attack stat than the other 2 making dps with doom bow less reliable, and his 25 def and a robe makes it harder to stay alive while getting closer to even hit those shots. Out of all of the classes from the previous testing, why bard?

[Megayeah]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[RyanYoon]

That is a celestial blade that fucking pierces, did you lose your fucking brains while designing this?

Celestial blade still has higher average damage and a higher range. Still better in a lot more situations imo

it being mostly balanced around each other, and you come along and make this idiotic bullshit

1. These new tops were meant to be endgame drops. Endgame drops are supposed to be a lot better. If they weren’t, then no one would care about doing endgame dungeons.
2. It’s barely even a jump. It’s the normal, +1 def, +5 damage, etc for each higher tiered weapon.

if you add this garbage balance destroyer and i’m never looking back again no matter how much you improve the game, because nothing can compensate for ruining all its’ balance.

Like I said. It isn’t really a balance destroyer seeing how the stat improvements are just the normal +1 def, +5 damage, etc…
Also there is something that can easily compensate for some “broken” new tops. The fact that realm is going to be on Unity and not flash

Also why are you complaining about 3 new weapons? Is it because you know it’s too hard to get for you?

[Seelpit]

He has a lower attack stat than the other 2 making dps with doom bow less reliable

However, keep in mind that the 70 dex make the Doom Bow much more forgiving to land shots with.

and his 25 def and a robe makes it harder to stay alive while getting closer to even hit those shots.

…which is why the range increase exists: it lets you stay a further distance from your target, thus compensating for the lack of def.

That said, the effects are a little underwhelming in my opinion, especially considering that tiered bows are still…like that.

one of the things i always liked about realm was the variety in gear and it being mostly balanced around each other

It’s kind of hard to balance endgame gear around high-game gear. LoD is by no means as hard a dungeon as O3 will (likely) be, so it makes sense that the items that drop from that latter can compete with the more niche drops from the former - especially considering that most of today’s UTs are balanced around WC tops.

On a personal note, if you feel this incredibly aggravated, I’d suggest a different game altogether - in the famous words of Reggie: if it’s not fun, why bother?

[Scrubthulu]

I’m a fan of the ability changes, and I’m sure the OCD of many a Realmer will be satiated too. In addition, it’s going to be pretty satisfying seeing the new top-tier powerhouses and how they replace certain UTs in different situations.

[Skandling]

Gave bard a quick go, with both DBow and Covert. The Inspired ability seems massively OP as-is. I had the t6 ability on all the time, which with my pet meant I could keep it active almost all the time, certainly use it at will. And it gave my DBow more range than a wand. Any wand, including a Wand of St Abrahams (though it’s hard to tell for sure as even with off-centre play that’s off the screen).

It’s not so much OP as unbalancing. A lot of the balance between classes is done by range. Bumping range by 50% gives melee as much range as daggers, dagger classes as much range as staves, and bow classes as much range as wands. This ability breaks that completely. It means e.g. no-one ever needs to go within sword range of an enemy again, if they have a Bard or two in their group.

Worst would be if after this were added it led to a lot of rebalancing of content to make it challenging again with Inspired. It would make it worse for small groups and solo, while cancelling out the benefit of Inspired so rendering its addition pointless. On the other hand if no rebalancing happens it would make far too much of the game far too easy, including some classic encounters like O2, Tomb bosses.

[DemiPony]

Some Bard feedback:

Reapplying Inspire does not refresh the duration. This causes the buff to run out a lot even if you have the Mana to keep it up.

Increasing the range on tiered bows through the use of inspire isn’t really that helpful, causing the class to not do that much for gameplay that affects itself. This is more a problem of tiered bows than Bard and Inspire, but I suggest a slight tweak to tiered bows be considered with Unity. That tweak is to increase the dmg of the middle bow shot and give it a different sprite than the outer two shots. The dmg of the outer shots could be lowered to even it out. This would allows bows to play long range feasibly without a UT bow while still retaining the ability to play aggressively for more dmg.

Bard’s ability doesn’t really do that much for gameplay. It’s a super strong buff alright but as it stands now all I’d see Bards doing is mindless mashing spacebar. I’d suggest a solo buff be attached onto the ability to give some incentive to using the ability, and I know just what it could be. I suggest that the more players a Bard inspires the higher a dex buff the Bard receives solely for itself. So it’d Inspire/Energize allies and Inspire/Energize/Dex+ itself. This’d inject some gameplay into the Bard. You’re not just mindless playing the lute, you’re actively seeking out allies to inspire in order to increase your own capabilities! A support class who’s kit encourages supporting! Simply, yet effective.

Bards max HP is too low for the weapon type. I understand it’s 670 to match the Robe classes but I believe it should be 700 instead to match the other bow classes. It will still have the low def associated with robes but the health would help protect it from being a paper thin support class with no healing.

[Keion]

Tested out the current changes as much as I could.
Bard: While the idea is cool, the actual implications of toying with range without also messing with the damage associated with the increased range is super destructive. 1.5x Range to any class is just extremely useful, especially since it’s buffing shot speed. Sword shots travelling 50% faster to go 1.5x farther while also still doing massive DPS is insanely unbalanced. Melees are already a known issue within the game, giving them dagger range but no nerf to their damage while it’s active is a recipe for disaster.
While classes like Staff and Wand can’t even SEE where the shots go because they go off screen. We cannot even see what is happening to our shots, unity is not out yet so we cannot see things to actually shoot off-screen unless we use our minimaps like some sort of freaking RTS game.
The energize is neat, but very strong, a little too strong if you have multiple bards to repeatedly apply it to each other. Since it enables it to be used by…using it. It’s not like healing where you eventually run out of mana without a pet. 2 bards can basically perma-energize with a t6 lute and never go OOM.

The item changes:
I did not get to test them as much as I would have liked since I did not have access to the items that were changed for the most part, and obviously some are not released yet. I do hope that the items that were made utterly obsolete are either re-introduced with stronger variants from later dungeons, or just buffed to be balanced around O3 if they are harder dungeons currently. Though some dungeons could also use difficulty buffs as well to make the loot fit in more.

Nice addition on the whole giving abilities more identity, that’s a nice touch and definitely appreciated.

[Hemming]

Not a fan of nerfing t0 items. Starting characters are weak enough as it is. Not everything has to be straight progression, it’s okay for curves to exist.

[Kristian]

Ironic that spells will get a wis bonus when wizard used to have 75 wis before pets.

Also T6 scepter losing 2 wis shouldn’t be a issue but yet the damage difference from T5 to T6 is 20 while every other tiered scepter has a 40 damage difference.

I hope vit is getting some kind of change soon, only the orb’s vit buff seems weird.

[DRLcookies]

I have 1 problem. Now that tiered armors get a def buff, shouldn’t candy armor be buffed aswell? maybe not def-wise but maybe a lessent dexterity loss?

[Envyous]

I am only touching on the Bard as my experience in the game itself doesn’t yield me to talk on the balance changes to items.

The Bard feels VERY lack luster. The range increase leads to a lot of neat plays groups can make together and also gives DECA a chance to make unique bosses that can better be beaten during certain phases with groups involving Bard’s. The MP Regen aspect is where my issues are. I honestly feel with the state of the game where the Silence Mechanic or the Quiet Mechanic play a big part in the difficulty of certain bosses/situations, having a class that has MP Regen as a buff kind of doesn’t make sense. In certain situations, this is an awesome buff to have, allowing Wizards and Priest to spam more, etc etc. But it is situational and very situational at best and not all that useful as the MP Regen amount given is quickly gone, and doesn’t yield a high enough value for some abilities to be used more than one additional time. My PET helps me do that much more efficiently.

The Bard needs something else, and honestly if you keep the Bard as is now, then you are going to make into a UT item, and honestly the strength of the class shouldn’t come from a UT item or ST item, just should be enhanced. I would like the Bard to Increase Attack Range and Attack Speed. This gives the Chance for some of the “Songs”/Lutes they play in the UT sets to give Purification, Attack at a small amount, and Defense at a small amount. These small changes would make the Bard be another support ranged character with a lot of different play styles that can be great for many different bosses especially LH.

The Bard would have its own thing that makes it special, while having a flavor of different classes that can stack and make it more viable to have. Honestly though, how the Bard sits now, everyone will eventually fall into playing Huntress or Archer again, because the Robe and Low Max DEF with Zero power spike and damage, crappy range on the buff, crappy multipliers on the buff and small MP gain, doesn’t make them a better choice in any form. You would have to heavily buff the MP regen mechanic, or just give them a straight up Magic Heal that mirrors the Priest Heal and even still, won’t be better. Make it Attack Speed and Attack Range.

[Deaughaghh]

I gotta test out void blade with that 1.5 range kek